Repayment terms fit the spraying calendar

WHEN Ed Stormes needed a new sprayer, he wanted a lender who would understand exactly why it was so important, and the huge difference it would make to his business. He wanted someone who properly understood farm contracting. Fortunately, he knew exactly who to call.

“Ben gets exactly what you’re trying to do, he understands what you’re buying and why you’re buying it,” he says. “He sees the practicalities of what you’re doing, how that purchase will work in practice. He understands how the business works.”

There’s a reason for that. At Rural Asset Finance, every member of the team have all worked on or grown up on farms and therefore, yes, understand exactly what their customers are talking about.

“They’re not like other lenders who just look at the accounts and the bottom line,” says Ed, owner of EDS Agricultural Contracting in south Yorkshire. “Ben knows the kit, he understands how it will be used, why it will make so much difference to the way we work and the future savings – things that are just not shown in the historic accounts.”

Over the past two years Ed has used Rural Asset Finance’s help to buy a nine-tonne digger, a 250hp tractor, a 14-tonne excavator and, more recently, a 36-metre self-propelled, Agrifac Condor 4 sprayer. “I say to Ben, ‘this is what I want to buy and this is how much it is, and he comes back every time with exactly what we want.’”

Using Rural Asset Finance means Ed is dealing direct with a lender, rather than through intermediaries . “Previously I’d have to explain everything to the broker, who’d then have to explain it all again and give my information to all to the lenders” he says. “Because of Ben’s background and the company’ specialism, he just gets it, which makes it so much quicker. When I want a new piece of kit I pick up the phone to Ben and within two to three days it’s all sorted.

“I don’t even bother with brokers anymore. For a while I did still use them to benchmark Ben’s pricing and solutions, but Rural Asset Finance always beat them on price anyway and my personal information stays in one place.”

Ed’s latest purchase will make his business much more efficient. “With our old 4,000-litre sprayer we used to run a bowser with it 75% of the time. The new one is 5,000 litres but with pulse-width modulation, so we can regulate the flow so it feels like 6,000 litres. Not only is it more efficient getting round, but it also means we use the bowser maybe only 30% of the time. That means we don’t need to be paying someone to drive a tractor pulling the bowser and can send that tractor off on other jobs.”

But Rural Asset Finance’s farming experience means they don’t just understand about the machinery. “They know the calendar, they know how spraying works,” says Ed. “So we do bi-annual payments, one in December when we’ve been paid for the winter spraying, and one in July when we’ve been paid for the spring. The last thing we need is big payments going out in March/April when our sprayers have been parked up for three months. But Ben already knows that, so he has worked out a payment plan that works for us and looks after our cash-flow.”

Ben says he’s delighted Rural Asset Finance could help. “We do know the challenges of running an agricultural business, and how important it is to protect cash-flow,” he says. “Ed runs a great business, and we’re really happy to be able to support him in whichever direction the business goes next.”

Meanwhile, Ed is so pleased with the finance support that he’s regularly recommending Ben Wood and the team at Rural Asset Finance to his agricultural contacts. “I’ve passed on their number to a few people,” he says. “It’s great to deal with someone who really understands your business and speaks your language.”